A sneering group of MSNBC hosts and analysts on Thursday berated Sean Hannity for his "mindless" anti-government attitude, mocking him as "pathetic." The Fox News host gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he dismissed much of the federal government as "dysfunctional." Ex-Newsweek editor Howard Fineman, who has bragged about "steering clear of partisanship," slammed Hannity for having a "deliberate lack of self-awareness [that] is just stunning."

Speaking of the federal government, Fineman continued, "Oneof the reasons why the system is so dysfunctional is because of the mindlessly accusatory nature of what he...what they [conservatives] do." The journalist, who has prided himself on "keeping an even keel ideologically," accused Hannity of being "an enthusiastically, vigorous user of that style of rhetoric and politics and it's one of the main reasons why things aren't working." Fineman exhorted viewers, "Wake up! Wake up!" [MP3 audio here. See video below.]

Time columnist Joe Klein excoriated Hannity: "There are an awful lot of scared people out there in this country right now. He preys on them, just as Rush does and the others. He's shameless."

Perhaps one reason the MSNBC crew had such anger for the Fox News host is that in the Playboy interview, Hannity mocked MSNBC's low ratings.

A transcript of the June 20 segment is below:

12:55pm ET

ALEX WAGNER: What do Donna Summer, Braveheart, the Grateful Dead, Angelina Jolie, meditation and the Passion of the Christ have in common? They're all a few of Sean Hannity's favorite things. In an interview with Playboy this month, Hannity talks politics, pot smoking and Obama the Muslim. Joy, because we never tire of talking about how people are convinced President Obama is a Muslim.

JOY REID: That's right.

WAGNER: Hannity plays playboy, "Obama did grow up in Kenya and he told the New York Times he went to a school there and one of the beautiful things on the planet is Islamic prayer at at sunset. He went to a Muslim school in Indonesia or wherever it was. Kenya. I forget. Now you've got me. I think it was Indonesia." The problem with this is it's still in the water supply.

REID: Not only that, but he's got no geography education in, like, school because

WAGNER: Indonesia, Kenya. Whatever. It's pathetic.

REID: Indonesia, Kenya.

JOE KLEIN: Television should be an educational tool. Let me say to Sean, Indonesia is Asia. It's just off of Asia. It's an archipelago of a lot of different islands.

WAGNER: Do we have a map?

KLEIN: And Kenya is in Africa, so they're, you know, very, very far apart and very, very different cultures.

HOWARD FINEMAN: I think you lost him You lost him at archipelago.

KLEIN: A bunch of islands.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: He doesn't read the articles, so he's not going to read the maps. He's looking for other pictures.

WAGNER: Oooh! Going there. Playboy. I do know just because someone thinks, Howard, that Islamic prayer is beautiful at sunset doesn't actually mean they're a Muslim.

FINEMAN: No. I mean There are many things that strike me about this. One of them is he says, "I don't know why people put faith in government. The system is dysfunctional. It doesn't work." That's like somebody saying, you know, "this bicycle that I just stuck a, a, a--"

WAGNER: Twig in the spokes of.

FINEMAN: "Twig in the spokes of won't go anywhere." I mean, the lack of sort of self-awareness, deliberate lack of self-awareness is just stunning. One of the reasons why the system is so dysfunctional is because of the mindlessly accusatory nature of what he--

WAGNER: People like Sean Hannity!

FINEMAN: --what they do. What they do. Listen, nobody is innocent in all this, I will grant that. But he is a, for better or worse, he's an enthusiastically, vigorous user of that style of rhetoric and politics, and it's one of the main reasons why things aren't working. Wake up! Wake up!

KLEIN: The reason for it. The reason is there's an audience for it.

FINEMAN: Of course. I know that.

KLEIN: There are an awful lot of scared people out there in this country right now. He preys on them, just as Rush does and the others. He's shameless.

Its funny. You’d almost think that the President wasn’t playing on the fear of single white women and minorities when he was campaigning in 2008 and 2012. There is something to fear and where the President was or wasn’t born is the least of it.

These smug leftist twerps on MSNBC act as if they never flub a word or get geography wrong. Hell Obama has made huge flubs on geography and the man is using a teleprompter 98% of the time.

5
posted on 06/20/2013 5:40:41 PM PDT
by Maelstorm
(This country wasn't founded with the battle cry "Give me liberty or give me a govt check!")

Russell Brand who is a bit of a fool in his own right, mocked and made fools of Mika and everyone who was on MSNBC set the other morning. I read about in Guardian which had You Tube link to video. He makes them look so STUPID.

"One of the reasons why the system is so dysfunctional is because of the mindlessly accusatory nature of what he...what they [conservatives] do."

Oh, I see.

The reason the neo-communist O'bammy administration is a Three Ring Non-Stop Cluster **** is because conservatives actually have the nerve to point out, VERBALLY OF ALL THINGS, that the neo-communist O'bammy administration actually IS a Three Ring Non-Stop Cluster ****.

The intensity, depth and breadth of the typical O-bots stupidity strains the limits of conceptual visualization.

I hate to defend Hannity because when all is said
and done he can’t ever get past the first level
of any argument. His pre-occupation with lists
makes him especially annoying. But if he causes
these bedwetting MSNBC liberals to get their
panties in a twist then more power to him.

What really irks them is that Playboy expended
the effort to publish an interview with him.

Russell Brand who is a bit of a fool in his own right, mocked and made fools of Mika and everyone who was on MSNBC set the other morning. I read about in Guardian which had You Tube link to video. He makes them look so STUPID.

No offense to you or anything, but I think if MSNBC and its hosts were never again mentioned in FR thread titles, they would all eventually be completely forgotten. Why give that channel free publicity? I have a difficult time believing anybody here wastes their time watching that imbecility on parade, and apparently hardly anybody anywhere watches that channel. I am certain nobody here gives the slightest rat’s ass what any of those people have to say about anything, so why the daily threads?

I’m even embarrassed to be bumping the thread with this post, but I had to get that off my chest.

Journalist Howard Fineman, who previously slammed Rush Limbaugh as a “werewolf,” who knocked Rick Perry and Sarah Palin as stupid, who smeared Tea Partiers as “secessionists,” touted his non-partisan credentials on the website of the liberal Huffington Post. Fineman absurdly proclaimed, “I’m pretty well known for keeping an even keel ideologically and for steering clear of partisanship.”

Fineman, who once lectured Mitt Romney to tell Limbaugh, “stuff it,” added, “I’m old-fashioned, even out of date, in this deconstructionist era, in which everyone is assumed to have an ulterior — political — motive. I don’t. I really don’t.” Fineman’s defense came after a public squabble with Limbaugh. The radio host derided the journalist for tweeting of the Olympics: “Brits long ago lost their empire, powerful currency. They’ve got social strife, but overall show us how to lose global power gracefully.”

You wanna know what they're really pissed about? I'll tellya what they're really pissed about. They're really pissed about the fact that combined, they make less than Hannity, even thought they're so much smarter, and so much more sophisticated, and so much more, well, self aware. That's what they're so pissed about, right there.

26
posted on 06/20/2013 6:07:59 PM PDT
by clintonh8r
("Europe was created by history. America was created by a philosophy." Baroness Thatcher)

Howard Finemans tweet last night, in which he said Florida = thugs and dumb, writes former Florida Times-Union columnist Abel Harding. Many would argue the word is modern code for the n-word. Just another example of why journalists must be cautious on social media.

'The reason the neo-communist O'bammy administration is a Three Ring Non-Stop Cluster **** is because conservatives actually have the nerve to point out, ' The intensity, depth and breadth of the typical O-bots stupidity strains the limits of conceptual visualization. WHOAH....THERE..TLI

YOU just did it...son.. You, lad have won the Jimsin First Prize Chicken Dinner AWARD. A coveted prize bestowed only on Men like you whose posts represent the highest pinnacle of Conservative Thought. Posts which reach up far and away and above and beyond the call of Conservative Culture....Bless you lad, keep up the good work; we will be looking for even greater contributions from your keyboard going forward.

This why I quit listening to this boob. About 5 years ago, he was talking on his show about how Playboy had no redeeming features. Nobody reads the article, they only looked at the pictures. Now he gives an interview to Playboy. What a hypocrite. Of course, he has other faults (always sounds like he is whining about something) and I really don’t care to listen to his diatribes that much.

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